Filling-end clearer for looms.



PATENTED DEC. 13, 1904,

A! E. BENSON.

FILLING END GLEARER FOR LOOMS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 23 1904 N0 MODEL;

Patented December 13, 1904.

ARTHUR E. BENSON, OF MAGNOLIA, MISSISSIPPI, ASSIGNOR TO DRAPER COMPANY, OF HOPEDAL'E, MASSACHUSETTS, A COR- PORATION OF MAINE.

FILLING-END CLEARER FUR LOOIVIS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 777,237, dated December 13,1904, Application filed July 28, 1904. Serial No. 217,839. (No model.)

T0 at whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ARTHUR E. BENSON, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Magnolia,county of Pike, State of Mississippi, have invented an Improvement in Fillingdlnd Clearers for Looms, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention has for its object the production of means to clear a filling end from the path of the filling-fork of a loom in order that the fork may operate properly to detect the breakage or failure of the filling. l f the filling fails or breaks after the shuttle passes the grid on its way to the adjacent shuttle-box, as occasionally it does, the filling end is left in front of the grid, and as the lay beats up the fork will be tilted as if the filling were intact. The shuttle is shot across the lay and then back again, and when once more in the firstmentioned box the filling end will again tilt the fork, and this may continue for a number of picks, no filling being laid, and of course a thin place will be made in the cloth, the extent of the thin place depending upon the length of time which elapses before the weaver notices the fault. Again, on one of its trips out of the box adjacent the fork the shuttle may carry the filling end back into the shed, when it will be fection.

In my present invention I have provided a clearing device which is brought into operative relation with the raceway of the lay adjacent the fork-grid on the picks intermediate the detecting-picks to thereby engage and clear a filling end from in front of the grid, so that the fork can detect the filling failure. It will be understood that the detecting action takes place on alternate picks in the usual manner.

The various novel features of my invention will be fully described in the subjoined specification and particularly pointed out in the following claims.

beaten in, causing an imper Figure l is a transverse sectional view of a portion of a loom on the line 1 1, Fig. 2, looking toward the left with one embodiment of my present invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a top or plan view of a portion of the lay, partly broken out, with the filling-fork and the means for clearing the filling end. Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but showing the clearer about to operate on a non-detecting pick; and Fig. 4 is a view in side elevation of the clearer detached.

The lay 1, having a shuttle-box 2 at one end thereof, herein shown as adjacent the lefthand side of the loom, the breast-beam 3, having an attached stand t for the fork-slide 5, the filling-fork 6, pivotally mounted on the stand and provided with a tail 7 to cooperate with the hook 8 of the usual actuator or wefthammer 9 when the fork is not tilted, as by absence of the filling in the path of the fork on the beat-up of the lay, and the grid 10, located on the lay opposite the fork and at the rear end of the transverse recess 11 in the lay-raceway, may be and are all of usual construction and operate in well-knmvn manner.

As is common in looms, the actuator or weft-hammer 9 vibrates back and forth, and its outward movement is so timed that if the fork is not tilted the tail thereof will immediately engage the weft-hammer hook, and the continued forward movement of the actuator will move the slide forward to either stop the loom or to effect a replenishment of filling if the loom is provided with automatic fillingreplenishing mechanism. It sometimes happens that the filling either breaks or runs out after the shuttle has passed beyond the fork on its way to the adjacent shuttle-box, and the filling end thus left extends across the recess 11, as shown at t, Fig. 2, in front of the grid and manifestly tends to tilt the fork as the lay beats up on its detecting-pick. The shuttle may continue its movement back and forth across the lay for an indefinite time, the filling end left, as described, in front of the grid acting on every other pick to tilt the fork, and as no filling is laid a thin place in the cloth will result. In order to prevent this faulty operation of the loom, I have provided a clearer to engage and clear such a filling end as hereinbefore mentioned and to remove l it from the path of the filling-fork, the clearer being controlled in the present embodiment of my invention by or through the actuator or weft-hammer, so that it is rendered operative on each non-detecting pick. The clearer is herein shown as comprising a body portion 12, fulcrumed at 13 on the fork-slide at the inner side thereof, and having a depending elongated finger 1 1, preferably having a downturned or hooked end 15. The body 12 is bent laterally and downwardly, as at 16, to loosely straddle the adjacent side of the forkslide, as very clearly shown in Fig. 2, and the lower part of the portion 16 is enlarged or thickened, as at 17, and provided with an elongated extension 18. The extension projects above the curved head 9 of the actuator or weft-hammer 9, so that as the latter vibrates it will cause the clearer device to rock on its fulcrum 13.

Referring first to Fig. 1, the shuttle S being shown therein in the shuttle-box adjacent the fork, it will be seen that the actuator when in its rearmost position wipes under the weighted portion 17 of the clearer and elevates it, thereby swinging the finger 14: forward or away from the lay, so that as the latter beats up the fork sweeps across the raceway and cooperates with the filling. As the actuator moves forward its head travels toward the outer end of the extension 18 of the clearer, as shown in Fig. 3, and thereby permits the weighted portion 17 of the clearer to descend, so that the finger lt is-movcd into the relative position shown in Fig. 3. Supposing that the filling has broken or run out as the shuttle has reached the box 2, leaving a short portion of filling extending beyond the selvage, then as the lay beats up (referring now to Fig. 1) such filling end will engage and tilt the fork just as if the filling were intact. As the lay goes back the shuttle is thrown across the raceway and the actuator 9 moves forward, so that when the lay beats up on the next succeeding beat the parts will be in the position shown in Fig. 3. As the lay beats up on this non-detecting pick the hooked end 15 of the clearer-finger 14 travels across the raceway, and the hooked end will pass behind and will engage the filling end, so that as the lay swings back such filling end will be drawn forward, and the clearing of the same from the lay will be completed as the clearer resumes the position shown in Fig. 1, when the shuttle again enters the box 2. On this pick, which is a detecting-pick, the fork will detect the absence of filling and will operate properly to either cause the stoppage of the loom or replenishment of filling, as the case may be.

It will be manifest that with the construction herein shown I cannot obviate the operation of the loom for three picks without filling; but I do prevent a continuance of such operation. Of course the first pick after the failure of the filling is a detecting-pick, and the filling end will tilt the fork, so that on the shot of the shuttle from the box 2 no filling will be laid, and no filling will be laid on the pick when the shuttle returns to the box 2. The third and succeeding pick must be made without any filling, as will be manifest; but by the use of the clearer-only three picks can be made without filling, whereas without the clearer the loom might continue running pick after pick until a very wide thin place would be made in the cloth. Inasmuch as a filling end is cleared from the lay on the pick next after that one on which the failure occurred, it will be manifest that the chance of the shuttle drawing such filling end into the cloth is greatly diminished.

My invention is not restricted to the precise construction and arrangement herein shown, as the same may be changed or modified in various particulars by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a loom, a lay, afilling-fork adapted to detect failure of filling on alternate picks, a fork-slide, a filling-end clearer fulcrumed on the slide, adjacent the fork, and means to operate said clearer on the non-detecting picks, to clear a filling end from the lay when left in the path of the fork.

2. In a loom, a lay, a filling-fork and its slide, an actuator for the slide, operating on alternate picks to move the slide outward upon detection of filling failure by the fork, a filling-end clearer, and means controlled by or through the actuator to render said clearer operative on non-detecting picks to clear a filling end from the lay when left in the path of the fork.

3. In a loom, a lay, a filling-fork and its slide, an actuator for the slide, operating on alternate picks to move the slide outward upon detection of filling failure by the fork, a filling-end clearer fulcrumed on the slide and having a depending, hooked clearing-finger adapted to intermittingly travel across the lay, a gravity-acting device to move the finger into operative position, and an extension connected with said finger and cooperating with the actuator on detecting picks to render the filling-end clearer inoperative.

4:. In a loom, a lay, a filling-fork and its slide, an actuator for the slide, operating on alternate picks to move the slide outward upon detection of fillingfailure by the fork, a filling-end clearer fulerumed on the slide and normally operative to engage and draw 011' the lay-filling in the path of the fork. and means governed by the actuator to render said clearer inoperative on detecting picks.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two suliscribing Witnesses.

ARTHUR E. BENSON.

Witnesses:

E. E. THIGPEN, THos. TRUITT. 

